Forexpros – The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week declined modestly, holding steady near the lowest level since March 2008, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending February 25 declined by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 351,000, compared to expectations for jobless claims to hold steady at 353,000.
The previous week’s figure was revised up to 353,000 from 351,000.
Jobless claims have remained below 400,000, a level historically associated with an improving labor market, in 16 of the past 18 weeks.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended February 18 fell to 3.402 million, holding close to the lowest since August 2008. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 3.400 million.
Continuing claims for the previous week were revised up to 3.404 million from 3.392 million.
The average of new claims over the past four weeks decreased by 5,500 to 354,000. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar remained modestly higher against the euro, with EUR/USD dipping 0.17% to trade at 1.3302.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock future indices held on to gains after the release of the data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to an increase of 0.25%, S&P 500 futures added 0.3%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures pointed to a gain of 0.4%.
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